Flying dog - Gonzo Imperial Porter

A perennial favorite of mine, Gonzo Imperial Porter.  To give you a little background... Flying dog brewery is out of Frederick MD and is pretty well known for it's interesting labels.  These interesting labels come from a man known as Ralph Stedman.  Mr. Stedman was made famous as Hunter S. Thompson's personal illustrator ever since being assigned to Hunter on his article on the Kentucky Derby.  Hunter and Ralph worked closely together for about 35 years.  As fans of Hunter's work Flying Dog decided to dedicate a brew to him and I cannot find a beer more fitting.  Gonzo journalism is what Hunter is well know for, it's described as "a style of Journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative*" this style was defined by Hunter and his well, for lack of a better word, unique take on the world.  This beer is Gonzo distilled, or well, at least brewed.  

Gonzo Imperial Porter is a liquid kick in the head.  It's brash, bold, and unapologetic.  I've once described it as tasting like chocolate and hate, and even after sobering up I cannot think of a better way to put it.  This beer does not coddle you, it doesn't hold you hand, it doesn't want you to like it, it just is what it is.  To be frank that is all I want from this beer.  The people at Flying Dog knew that many people wouldn't like this beer for what is is, brutally hoppy, chocolately, hints of coffee, and a harsh alcoholic bite, but the people that do like it will sing it's praises from on high.  I am one of those people.  When I buy this beer I think very critically about who I am drinking with as they tend to ask if they can have a taste of what I'm drinking.  Usually I feel pretty good about saying yeah, have a taste, see what you think, but with the Gonzo... Well I'll warn them beforehand if I don't think it's their style.  For good reason too.  With my latest sixer I gave a taste to someone with the aforementioned description of chocolate and hate, her response was "well, I taste the hate."

Gonzo will never appeal to the mainstream, either the beer or style of journalism, and I can't imagine a world where they did.  It's the weird kid in a trench coat who you think is planning on bringing a gun to school, it's that guy who is in his 40's that still loves LSD, and it's that guy that installs security cameras to cover every inch of their house.  Gonzo is edgy, unsettling, dangerous, paranoid, and charming in it's own way, and if you don't like it you can go fuck yourself, because it isn't trying to win you over.  If you spend some time with it you will realize it's good qualities, you will see that it's a great friend that your significant other doesn't like you hanging out with because they are a bad influence, but it wants to just go out and have a great time with you, and it's not going to change to make your SO happy.

So, buy yourself a sixer, and hold on because this beer is about to make you sing The Song of the Sausage Creature.  If you survive, you might just thank it for taking you on such a wild ride.

Hebrew Jewbilation 14

Let me tell you a short story about my introduction to Hebrew. I was staying down in Raleigh North Carolina at my Uncle's house. He had invited his brother, my father, and I down to join him for Beer Magazine's World Beer Festival. This point in my life the largest beer festival I had been to was the microbrewery festival at Penn Brewery. I was not prepared for what I was about to witness. In the center of downtown Raleigh a large park was lined with tents. The eight foot tables were lined up butt up against each other two rows in each tent one brewer at each table. Brewers from each corner of the world US, Belgium, Japan, Germany, and back to the US again, not to mention damn near every place in between. Where to begin? I stepped up to the first table I saw. On it hung a simple banner for Schmaltz Brewery out of New York. They had samples of Hebrew, a sub band of theirs. I had my first sample of the day, Origin pomegranate ale. I must say that this small brewery with a penchant for Semitic jokes was a wonderful start to the day.

Schmaltz has released Jewbilation their chosen beer. It's somewhat similar to a barlywine in that it's a big beer, 14%ABV brig, and lots of strong flavor. This beer could almost be treated like a cask strength bourbon, but I would not want to water this down I want to taste the grandeur of this fine brew. This fine brew is made with 14 different kind of hops and 14 kinds of barley. Complex is an oversimplification. Upon first ease you get hit with chocolate, coffee, and molasses malt like you wouldn't believe and a nice alcohol burn on the sides of the tounge. As you feel it pass across the rest of your ease buds you pick up plum, butterscotch, bourbon, oak, vanilla, and slight hints of citrus mainly lemon. I could spend days describing the flavors that come through but I need to stop for a moment to describe the look. I have stated before I don't generally go on about the look of a beer, but I'll be damned if this didn't look just like someone pulled a giant shot of espresso. Lots of lacing is left on the glass after each sip.

I must say that this is one beer that you must be on the lookout for. Not just because it's a great drink, but because every year the formula changes. Each year the number increments and the recipe changes. Pick up a couple bottles of this. One to drink now, and the rest to seller until you can compare it to the future incarnations.

Westmalle Dubbel

Ah Westmalle, the trappist abbey that gave us the terms dubbel and trippel to describe our beers. Tonight I have decided to review the first and my personal favorite of the trappist dubbels.

The dubbel from Westmalle is incredibly complex, it mixes some nice fruity esters (similar to plum or raisin) with some spice I can't quite put my finger on, along with a wonderful malty characteristic and a little hoppiness in the end it really shines out as a bacon of what the Belgian's can accomplish in their brewing.

One of my favorite characteristics of this brew is also a favorite of mine with good wines (reds mainly,) the temperature it is served at has a profound effect on it's flavor. Refrigerator temps tend to make it taste sharper bring out a little more of the hop characteristics and move the malts and fruity esters aside. When you let a glass of this sit for a little while two wonderful things happen, 1 the glass warms and it allows the flavors to meld, 2 the beer oxidizes a little and brings out the spice more. My serving suggestion is to get yourself a nice chalice style glass, or at least something with a nice wide mouth, pour it trying to leave a little at the bottom (this is a bottle conditioned brew and there are active yeast as well as something called trub that lies on the bottom) and just let it sit for maybe 5 minutes. I know 5 minutes seems like a long time but your mouth will thank me.

As far as the yeast and trub go, I for one kind of like the flavor it brings but many people do not. My suggestion for dealing with it is to try leaving it at the bottom of the bottle, then once you finish your glass pour the remainder in and give it a taste, that way you can decide for yourself. the yeast and trub are not harmful in anyway, in fact brewer's yeast is rather good for you, well at least hippies think so and they brought us granola so who knows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewer%27s_yeast#Nutritional_supplements